Learning to Write With Interactive Writing Instruction

Understanding the Orthography
The students used their spelling words, invented 
spelling, and their current knowledge of the or-
thography to encode their messages, including 
many of the letter sounds, blends, and inflectional 
endings that Diane had taught. All of the students 
acquired the conventions of writing, although 
some students learned these concepts later in the 
year. Bailey, for example, who began first grade 
with low levels of literacy knowledge and experi-
ence, struggled to understand the importance of 
spacing, and even in March her collaborative part-
ners were reminding her to “leave space” between 
words. This kind of peer scaffolding was com-
mon, particularly when mixed- ability pairs wrote 
collaboratively.
Word Solving
We observed 377 instances of students overtly em-
ploying the word- solving strategies Diane had taught 
(see Table 2). The most frequently observed strategy 
was “Say the word slowly and listen for the sounds 
you hear” (156). The second most frequently used 
strategy was “Use a resource” (101), and students 
used picture books and illustrated dictionaries more 
than other resources. We also observed students 
saying each word aloud before they wrote (52). Some 
students asked for help (30) when writing words that 
they considered “tricky”:
Deanna and Karen are writing about friendship. 
Deanna has written 
fris
(friends). She looks at her ap-
proximation and says, “We’re gonna need help.” Karen 
turns to me and pleads, “Pleeeease?” and Deanna 
chimes in, “Please? It’s a tricky one.”
Despite Diane’s privileging of the practice part, 
we seldom observed students using this mediation-
al tool (18).
Appropriating Instructional Language
The students also appropriated the language of 
Diane’s instruction. As they talked with one another